This question, as well as the above pic, comes to me from watching the Youtube channel [Garbage Time](https://www.youtube.com/@GarbageTime420), where Wade from DankPods buys and tinkers with cars in varying levels of condition. This pic is from a series they did on what they named the "[Free Car](https://dankpods.fandom.com/wiki/Free_Car)", a mid-80s Daihatsu that one of Wade's friends gave to him for free.

In [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atLlGyRgAbY), the friend in question appears in the background, and tells the story of how he got it. All of the brakes on this car are completely shot, to the point where even the rotors and bearings are either rusted to death or fully ground down. The friend says that, after buying it, he had to drive it home using only the handbrake.

What confuses me about this story of the "Free Car" is *how* a car with no functional brakes can be stopped using the handbrake. I've done brake pad replacements on my own car (a 2018 Camry SE), so I've seen how an average non-EPB brake caliper is designed, but I couldn't tell what mechanism the handbrake uses separate from the pads in order to apply braking power. People who know more than me, please tell me: how can a handbrake stop a car that has no working brakes, let alone pads?

How can a car be driven using only the handbrake? (not my car or story; explanation in post)